Sonic Robots Don’t Play Instruments, They Are The Instruments

[Moritz Simon Geist]’s experiences as both a classically trained musician and a robotics engineer is clearly what makes his Techno Music Robots project so stunningly executed. The robotic electronic music he has created involves no traditional instruments of any kind. Instead, the robots themselves are the instruments, and every sound comes from some kind of physical element.

A motor might smack a bit of metal, a hard drive arm might tap out a rhythm, and odder sounds come from stranger devices. If it’s technological and can make a sound, [Moritz Simon Geist] has probably carefully explored whether it can be turned into one of his Sonic Robots. The video embedded below is an excellent example of his results, which is electronic music without a synthesizer in sight.

We’ve seen robot bands before, and they’re always the product of some amazing work. The Toa Mata Lego Band are small Lego units and Compressorhead play full-sized instruments on stage, but robots that are the instruments is a different direction that still keeps the same physical element to the music.

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Who Would Win In A Fight, Robot [Lemmy] Or Robot God?

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RBSkq-_St8&w=580]

So this is what happens when a fan of The Rock-afire Explosion grows up. Meet Compressorhead, a musical trio of hydraulic and pneumatic musical mastery.

Compressorhead is a lean band, consisting of only three members. Stickboy, the drummer, is a four-armed beast reminiscent of [General Grievous] that plays a 14-piece Pearl kit with a double bass. His listed influences include [Danny Carey] and the original MPC60.

Fingers is the guitarist and a wonder of mechanical linkages consisting of 78 hydraulically actuated fingers. Influences include [Yngwie Malmsteen], but with more fingers and less of an ego, we expect Fingers to be an even better guitarist than his idol.

Bringing in the low-end is Bones, the robotic tread-mounted bassist for Compressorhead. Like Fingers, he plays an unmodified instrument. He’s also the newest member of the band, completed in 2012.

If you’d like to check out Compressorhead in person, they seem to be touring Australia right now. If you’d like to schedule them, their rider lists a requirement of 65 Amp, 3 phase power, 3 liters each of hydraulic fluid and motor oil, and suspiciously no requirement for removing all the brown M&Ms from a package. Be sure to check out the videos of the band in action on their media site.

Thanks [BadWolf] for sending this one in.

Robot Band Covers [Marilyn Manson]

[James] built himself a robotic band from obsolete computer parts. The band needed something to play, and [Marilyn Manson]’s Beautiful People fit the bill. While it’s not the Rock-fire Explosion, having the [James]’ band cover [Marilyn Manson] is nearly as terrifying.

[James]’ original plan was to cover Mad World, but the stepper motors were drowning out the music for that song. While trying fix the cello problem the servos started acting up and reminded him of a certain song. While it’s not faithful to the original, we really like the arrangement on this version.

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